Episodes
Wednesday Mar 01, 2017
Nothing More Practical
Wednesday Mar 01, 2017
Wednesday Mar 01, 2017
A homily preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, March 1, 2017, Ash Wednesday.
Texts: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
We need more love in the world. I imagine we might all agree with that. But what kind of love do we need more of? Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, suggests we need more eros. Not the over-sexualized kind of love that is often associated with this Greek word for love, but rather the profound attraction and desire that draws us “towards something beyond [ourselves] which gives meaning—the other person that I love, the God I seek to love.” Williams connects this desire to our yearning for meaning and acceptance.[i] What if our eros was understood not as lust, but as desire for the one who will love us, hold us, be patient with us as we learn to trust, as we learn to let go of control, as we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to grow as God means us to. Williams points out the ways our thinking about “desire” gets twisted: we spend time trying to decide what we want and forget to ask the more important question—why do we want what we want?
It’s this twisted thinking that leads to all sorts of idolatry, to our focus and obsession with things that draw us in and keep us from connecting to the love, meaning, and acceptance that we truly seek. As the old country song goes, we’re “lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.” Throughout the Judeo-Christian tradition, idolatry has been the consistent temptation. The Ten Commandments begin with YHWH saying, “I am the Lord your God…who brought you out of slavery…You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol…” (Ex 20:3-4, Deut 5:7-8) This isn’t because God is a controlling tyrant, but because God knows that idols can seem attractive and powerful, but are actually devoid of the power to give our lives meaning, to hold us, to love us back, to set us free. God’s not a controlling tyrant, but the one whose love never fails. God knows that. God loves you…
“Return to me with all your heart.” (Joel 2:12) God speaks these words through the prophet Joel. Return…This is the invitation for us as we enter the season of Lent. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But so often, our hearts are given away to things that aren’t worthy to receive them. Jesus taught that loving God and loving neighbor were what would give life (Lk 10:28). So why do we persist in loving things that separate us from God and neighbor; why do we persist in loving things that don’t give life?
The season of Lent is a time for us to take a hard look at the state of our hearts, to be honest about the temptations in our lives, and to seek to align our values, our hearts and our lives with the Kin-dom vision that promises liberation and fullness of life. The traditional invitation—which you will hear me extend in a few moments—is to self examination and repentance; prayer, fasting, and self-denial (which often includes almsgiving); and reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word. In other words, Lent is a time to give up things as well as take on new life-giving practices so that we might identify and let go of our own selfish desires, so that we might get rid of distractions from God and what matters most of all.
If we take this tithe of our time—Lent is roughly a tenth of the year—and truly try to turn and return to God, to true love, then it is possible that our lives can be changed in profound ways. Some may struggle to believe that things like prayer, self-denial, and studying scripture could have that much positive, practical impact on our day to day lives. But we know, if we think about it even for a moment, that our primary relationships make a profound impact on our lives. If those relationships are healthy, close, supportive, playful, honest, life is good. If not, our days are lonely and sad and we wander into dark places looking for love. All this is to say that our Lenten practices are primarily designed not as a forced march in order to keep from getting punished, nor are they a New Year’s resolution “do-over” (though there’s nothing wrong with wanting to adjust our lives in healthy ways). Rather, the Lenten disciplines are there as a way to be in relationship with GOD—to do our part in the relationship, to nurture the relationship, to make time for the relationship. And relationship with God (more than any other relationship) will have a profound impact on our daily lives.
Every year, I spend a week in silence at a Jesuit retreat house in Pennsylvania. The silence is not that quiet, as any of you who try to practice silence might understand. In addition to all the noise in my own head, I try to listen for God through scripture, through the birds, breeze, trees, and more. It’s a pretty chatty time, my silent retreats. I mention this because in one of the alcoves in the retreat house hangs a print with a famous poem attributed to Pedro Arrupe, a 20th century Spanish Jesuit priest who served as the twenty-eighth Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The poem has become one of the touchpoints for me each year, as I seek out the simple frame and read the words printed there. The words are as follows:
Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read,
whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love,
stay in love,
and it will decide everything.[ii]
As we enter into Lent this year, I invite you to consider what you truly love. Who or what gets your heart? If you wonder how to discern the answer to that, look at how you spend your time, look at how you spend your money, look at what occupies your thoughts. Think about how your Lenten discipline can help you grow closer to God in loving relationship. We repent today because in one way or another, in small ways and large, we reject the extravagant love that God has for us. We repent today because we turn to things that cannot satisfy instead of falling into the arms of God. Why not think about your Lenten discipline this year as falling in love? Because falling in love with the God who is in love with you? That will decide everything.
[i] Rowan Williams, Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016, p. 32.
[ii] Attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. (1907–1991)
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